Savvy shopper column: Taking advantage of errors is one thing but
blatant abuse can be criminal

I currently have two supermarket vouchers in my wallet and several more that are probably past their expiry date stuck on my fridge. The usual pattern is that I forget about the vouchers until it’s too late to use them – a mistake, because supermarket vouchers can help save shoppers a lot of money.

Their popularity has soared in recent years across the country. Valassis, Britain’s largest coupon and voucher services provider, estimates that £1.8bn worth of supermarket vouchers will be redeemed this year, up from £1.6bn in 2012.

The difference between vouchers and coupons is that a coupon reduces the price of a particular product, while a voucher reduces the total shopping bill.

But what happens when something goes wrong – and vouchers and coupons save shoppers more money than the supermarket intended?

Earlier this month Asda withdrew an offer that accidentally offered shoppers £50 discounts on their shopping. The voucher was intended for one use only but a glitch meant shoppers could use it repeatedly – and hundreds of people quickly took advantage.

The supermarket said it cancelled the voucher within hours and would not honour any outstanding orders which used a rogue voucher code. A spokesman for Asda said “a small number of savvy customers” had “got more money off than they should have”.

It’s the latest reported incident in a series of supermarket glitches. In August this year members of HotUKDeals, a discount voucher site, claimed to be saving hundreds of pounds at Tesco after bulk buying ice creams at an 88pc discount.

The supermarket’s smaller stores were running a two-for-£3 offer on ice creams as well as two for £3 on pizza and ice cream, so shoppers could save twice by combining both promotions. One member claimed to have made a saving of £122.62 after buying 300 ice creams for just £17.36. Tesco said this was an IT error.

Last year, Tesco shoppers were able to buy six bottles of wine, usually worth £59.94, for less than the price of one bottle after another error. A Tesco spokesman said: “We aim to offer our customers prices and promotions that help them meet the cost of their everyday shopping. In the rare instances when errors occur we always aim to correct them as quickly as possible.”

Popular forums like HotUKDeals and MoneySavingExpert quickly spread the word when a loophole appears, allowing hundreds of shoppers to take advantage.

“Mistakes can happen easily,” said Charles D’Oyly, managing director of Valassis. “Issuers can put the wrong value on a coupon, or print too many. You need to have the terms and conditions very clear and you must have an expiry date.”

But is it acceptable for shoppers to pile in? When does exploiting a supermarket’s one-off glitch turn into something more, well, criminal? It’s estimated that “voucher abuse” is costing supermarkets millions of pounds every year. Customers use coupons that are out of date or don’t apply to what is in their shopping basket, in a practice known as “misredemption”. Fraud involves tampering with bar codes or reproducing a voucher digitally so it can be printed several times.

Mr D’Oyly said: “Consumers typically do not end up in court for a minor case of coupon abuse – a few pounds off – but there have been a few court cases where people were making a living out of this.” In July 2011, a Cambridgeshire couple, Nigel and Penny Ward, pleaded guilty to reusing their Tesco Clubcard vouchers dozens of times to obtain almost £1,100 worth of free groceries in what is believed to be the first prosecution for voucher fraud. The couple, who claimed they had fallen on hard times due to illness, were sentenced to a 12-month community order and ordered to pay £250 each in compensation to Tesco.

Dan Plant from MoneySavingExpert said: “Companies lay out exactly how an offer works in the small print. More often than not this is where the traps lie for shoppers, borrowers, savers – whoever you are.

“If you are using a voucher as described within the small print legalese, then fill your boots. But go beyond this, and you’re wading into murky waters.”

Mr D’Oyly said supermarkets are taking steps to counter the efforts of bargain hunters, as well as the more serious fraudsters. Valassis checks coupons ahead of their release for errors and advises supermarkets on how to make their coupons difficult to copy. “Making sure the right checks are in place at the point of sale would be a big step forward,” he said.

“I think over the next year or so, there will be greater efforts to tighten up areas where there are loopholes.”

This week's bargains

As part of our weekly Savvy Shopper column for the Daily Telegraph, we trawl the offers and pick out the best of the week.